Chapter 12 –Torts and Cyber Torts

Practical Internet Exercise 12-1:

Legal Perspective—Online Defamation

Instructions: The growth of Internet Web logs (blogs), chat rooms, and social networking sites have expanded the number of forums through which many people can exchange information and express their opinions. While the Internet has expanded freedom of expression in this way, it has also provided a medium through which many incidents of defamation have been raised.

Click on the first link listed below and read the article regarding online defamation and its relation to U.S. law, provided by the South African law firm of Sonnenberg Hoffman & Galombik, and answer Questions 1–5.

Next, go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Bloggers' FAQ – Online Defamation Law" page, read the page, and answer Questions 6–9.

Lastly, click on the third URL to a summary of significant cases regarding online defamation provided by the law firm of Phillips Nizer. Read the summary of three of these cases, and answer Question 10.

Visit URLs:

Online Defamation Article

Electronic Frontier Foundation Blog

Online Defamation Cases

Questions and Answers

Answer the following questions in the fields below.

Question 1: What features distinguish the Internet from other publishing mediums that have led to the re-examination of the existing rules of defamation?

Question 2: Whether a party is characterized as a publisher is largely dependent on what?

Question 3: In the Cubby case, in what way did the court compare an Internet service provider to a library, book store, or news stand?

Question 4: In the Prodigy case, the court concluded that Prodigy was a publisher while in the Cubby case, CompuServe was not considered a publisher. The distinction between these two ISPs was made in the Prodigy case based on what two grounds?

Question 5: In the Zeran case, America Online, Inc. was protected from liability for defamation as a result of what congressional act?

Question 6: What four elements must be proven to establish defamation?

Question 7: Explain the different standards for defamation when reporting on a public figure versus a private figure. How is a public figure defined?

Question 8: What are some examples of libelous and nonlibelous statements? What is the general distinction that determines whether a statement libelous or not?

Question 9: What are some examples given for "libel per se"?

Question 10: Summarize the court's rulings in the three cases you chose.

Practical Internet Exercise 12-2:

Management Perspective—Legal and Illegal Uses of Spam

Instructions: As you read in the text, the sending of spam, or unsolicited commercial e-mail, has been held by courts to be a trespass to personal property. Many Internet service providers have clauses in their user agreements prohibiting the sending of spam over their servers. Direct marketing using spam can be a legal minefield.

To learn more about the legal and illegal uses of spam, go to the Web site of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (CAUCE).

Visit URL:

CAUCE

Questions and Answers

Answer the following questions in the fields below.

Question 1: On the home page, click on About CAUCE at the top of the page, and briefly restate this organization’s mission.

Questions 2: On the home page, read the article presented and peruse the Twitter conversation on the right-hand side of the site. What are some of the timely topics they are discussing? How could these topics apply to the legal environment of business?